Question of the Day

Should President Trump pardon Michael Flynn?

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - Voters in Dayton will see just one tax levy on their ballots this fall after the city’s school board dropped a proposed property tax levy.

The 5-mill levy proposed this summer by Dayton Public Schools would have funded expanded preschool, summer and after-school programs. Though it would have overlapped in part with the city of Dayton’s proposed income tax increase, which also seeks to expand preschool.

The Dayton Daily News reports (https://bit.ly/2a3xRoj ) the school board let its levy issue die without a vote at a Tuesday night meeting.

The move came after Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley presented ways the district and city could work together on grant money to fund the education programs.

School board President Adil Baguirov said the levy had a 50-50 chance of being rejected by voters, and he believed the grants offered better odds.

“With the grants, nothing is 100 percent, but it’s certainly a far higher probability than 50 percent,” he said.

Baguirov said if voters had backed the school levy this year, student performance gains would follow. But he said there were other issues to weigh, such as the potential interference with the city’s plans for the income tax.

Baguirov told the newspaper it wouldn’t make much sense for the school board to reconsider a levy next year, as it wouldn’t produce tax revenue until 2018. That’s just months before the district’s deadline to improve or face state takeover.

Meanwhile, the Columbus Board of Education has sent the smallest of four recommended levy requests to voters in November.

The Columbus Dispatch reports (https://bit.ly/2a3ESpo ) that district voters will see a ballot question to add 6.92 new mills, which would add about $242 to the bill on a $100,000 house. That’s an 18 percent increase in the taxes the school district collects from residential property owners.